CANCUN, MEXICO - For years, policymakers and scientists alike have spoken of the need to save tropical forests as a way of curbing climate change. By week's end, U.N. negotiators may finally set the rules of the road for doing it.

If all goes according to plan, the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change will establish a global mechanism allowing developing nations to receive financial compensation for curbing deforestation, which accounts for roughly 15 percent of the world's annual greenhouse gas emissions.

Brazil, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea are among the nations where forests are being cut to make way for expanded cattle grazing areas and the production of crops such as soybeans and palm oil.

Now the formal text on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, or REDD+, as it is known, is almost ready. It will help define how to measure deforestation over time and what social and environmental safeguards need to be in place.

"It is ripe for harvest," said Brazilian climate change ambassador Sergio Serra, whose country's greenhouse gas emissions stem largely from the destruction of the Amazon's forests. "It's there."

Environmentalists, who have lobbied hard for the measure as a way to save some of the world's most biologically rich areas and to provide developing countries with a stake in conservation, say an agreement here will give both the public and private sectors a financial incentive to protect forests under pressure in Latin America, Asia and Africa.

"We know that deforestation is a global problem, and the only way to address that is with an international mechanism," said Rebecca Chacko, climate policy director for the advocacy group Conservation International. "Now we finally have a moment where, if we're successful this week, we can move forward and begin to invest for real."

There are already pilot projects scattered around the globe, funded by corporate interests hoping to bolster their public image or prepare for a carbon-constrained world, or by governments and public institutions focused on curbing deforestation. Norway has pledged more than $1 billion between now and 2012 as part of its long-term pacts with Brazil, Indonesia and Guyana, while the United States has promised $1 billion as part of any broad international climate deal.

And by the end of this month, a Hong Kong-based company may become the first to preserve a stretch of tropical forest by selling credits to major corporations, who could use them to compensate for their own greenhouse gas emissions if they face government regulation in the future.

The development firm InfiniteEarth is poised to issue internationally approved forest carbon credits on a 250,000-acre stretch of rain forest and peat forests on the island of Borneo that had been slated to be cut down and converted to palm oil plantations. The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Preserve project, which provides habitat for the endangered Borneo orangutan, already has sold voluntary carbon credits to Gazprom Marketing & Trading in Britain, Denmark's Nordjysk Elhandel and Japan's NTT Data.

Todd Lemons, InfiniteEarth's chief executive, said the fact that Gazprom agreed to pre-pay for several million tons in carbon offsets even before the Rimba Raya project was certified, "gave our investors and the market a very-much needed confidence there was a market for these credits."

Still, the sort of forest carbon market that would grow out of any climate agreement would be modest at first and funded largely through the roughly $4.5 billion in pledged donations to Brazil and Indonesia and other countries that show the most promise of delivering on verifiable cuts in deforestation.

A year ago many experts had envisioned that most of the money would come from companies bound by the European Union's emissions trading system as well as those in the United States, since Congress was considering adopting legislation that would have allowed American greenhouse gas emitters to buy offsets abroad. That legislation collapsed and, with it, the prospect of billions of dollars in private financing.

"There will not be a waterfall of money that will come from a final deal" in Cancun, said Andrew Deutz, the Nature Conservancy's director of international government relations.

But while a dozen countries already have promised to help pay to preserve forests in the short term, most experts say the effort will fall short of what is needed to avert serious climate change. Several analyses, including ones by the Union of Concerned Scientists, the E.U. and Britain, estimate that the world would need to devote $25 billion a year to cut deforestation in half by 2020.

"We're getting out of the gate, but there's a lot more work that needs to be done before we can reduce deforestation at the rates that are needed," said Kevin Conrad, who is executive director of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations and Papua New Guinea's climate change and environment ambassador.

Even getting out of the gate isn't certain. Bolivia and its allies are seeking to block the forestry measure on the grounds that it applies capitalist principles to achieving a public good. On Tuesday, a group of activists marched through one of the buildings housing negotiations chanting, "No, no, no, no, no REDD. No!" And U.S. special climate envoy Todd Stern, who backs the provision, said the U.S. may not be able to support its full enactment if negotiators cannot agree on more contentious issues, such as how to verify carbon cuts by major developing countries.

If negotiators fail to close the deal on deforestation, U.N. Foundation President Tim Wirth said, the world could risk losing what everyone agrees is "low-hanging fruit" in the fight against climate change. "Low-hanging fruit, if left on the tree, can rot," Wirth said. (By Juliet Eilperin)

Source: The Washington Post

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Nepalese housewife Manohara Khadka believes rural women are the best protectors of local forests.

For rural women, the forest is a source of livelihood, providing fuel and food, she said. Because of that, women do their best to care for the forest.

Women, however, have so far been excluded from international discussions on protecting forests —the so-called REDD talks.

REDD stands for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and is a plan to do just that — reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

With the REDD plan in place, countries are required to reduce deforestation and receive financial benefits in return.

“Women have been excluded from the discussions, meaning they are not considered stakeholders,” Khadka said. “It also sends the wrong message to women that REDD will end community access to forests.”

Khadka said women would be useful for policy making as they could provide insight on ways to protect the forest, as well suggestions for benefit sharing once the REDD projects are in place.

In Nepal, half of its population of eight million live near forests.

Of the country’s 5.5 million hectares of forest, 1.2 million hectares are categorized as community forest.

REDD talks have been taking shape in the last three years, since forest loss was predicted to contribute 20 percent to global emissions.

The REDD plan is expected to be one of the priority issues to be discussed at the Cancun climate talks.

A REDD text did not include a single word on women’s involvement in the plan. The text only discussed the roles of indigenous people in protecting forests.

“Women are explicitly excluded from what is happening now [in the REDD talks]. Gender is a missing link in REDD,” Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management director Jeannette Gurung said.

Jeannette said rural women in Asia who have innate skills to protect forests were not involved in the REDD plan’s implementation.

“Women know nothing about the REDD business because governments in Asia pay no attention to gender issues,” she said.

Jeannette said she had spoken with women in Indonesia, including Aceh, which is one of the candidate provinces to host a REDD pilot project.

Indonesia has the largest amount of forest in Asia, with 120 million hectares of rainforest.

“The Indonesian government needs to make gender one of the indicators in determining the REDD pilot project host,” she said.

The Indonesian government was slated to announce the province that would host the pilot REDD project this year.

The governments of Indonesia and Norway have a US$1 billion climate deal to reduce forest loss, which had hit over 1 million hectares per year.

The Alliance of Archipelago Indigenous People estimated there were 50 million to 70 million in-digenous people living in Indonesia. Most of them live around or in forests.

Among the main concerns of indigenous communities are conflicts over forest borders and rights to forests.

Indigenous women experience a double exclusion, not only from the government, but also from their own communities because many indigenous people have patriarchal systems in which men hold all the important customary positions.

International Union for the Conservation of Nature senior forest policy adviser Carole Saint-Laurent also said gender issues received low priority in the discussions on REDD policies.

“Women often carry the brunt of the impact from climate change, as they often manage the natural resources in rural communities. But they are left out of REDD talks,” she said. (By Adianto P. Simamora)

Source: The Jakarta Post

The burgeoning global program REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) could do more than mitigate climate change, according to a new study in Conservation Letters by scientists with Conservation International (CI). Analyzing a sample of 2,500 forest animals, including mammals, birds and amphibians, researchers found that REDD+ could reduce the rate of extinction among these species by 46-82% over five years. The wide range in the study's findings depends on the amount of funds devoted to REDD+: more funds means greater forest preservation and, thereby, less extinction.

Modeling deforestation in 85 countries under current rates versus various REDD+ scenarios, the model found that a fully financed REDD+ program (i.e. about $30 billion a year) would cut global deforestation by about 70% and furthermore cut extinction rates by up to 82%, whereas minimal funding ($5 billion a year) would cut deforestation by around 28% and extinction rates by almost half. In between these extremes, around $15 billion a year would buy a decrease in deforestation of 52% and cut extinction rates by 72%.

"What this research tells us is that REDD+ can be a win-win for the protection of our climate and the preservation of biodiversity," said Dr. Jonah Busch, the report’s lead author, and Climate and Forest Economist at Conservation International. "While any reduction in deforestation and extinction rates would be a welcome achievement, the takeaway is this: the level of REDD+ financing will be the main driver of true progress. Greater financing will lead to greater reductions in deforestation, greater storage of carbon in forests, and greater benefits to biodiversity."

Government officials from around the world are currently meeting in Cancun for a UN Climate Summit. Many are hopeful that amid low expectations for the overall meeting, jumpstarting the REDD+ program may be one of its accomplishments.

Some scientists warn that we are entering into a sixth mass extinction event with extinction rates currently estimated at 100 to 1000 times higher than the background extinction rate, i.e. the average rate of extinctions as determined by fossil-studies. (By Jeremy Hance)

Copyright mongabay 2010

Source: Mongabay

Converting peatlands for wood-pulp and oil palm plantations generates nearly 1,500 tons of carbon dioxide per hectare, making these ostensibly "green" sources of paper, vegetable oil and biofuels important drivers of climate change, reports new research published by scientists at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), found that oil palm plantations established on peat soils generate nearly 60 tons of carbon dioxide per hectare over their 25-year life cycle. Roughly 62 percent of emissions arise from decomposition of peat, while 25 percent are released when the vegetation is burned shortly after clearing. Additional emissions result from use of nitrogen-based fertilizers. With more than 100,000 hectares of peatlands in Southeast Asia—primarily Indonesia—being converted every year for plantations, the research suggests Indonesia could fail to meet emissions targets if it doesn't limit conversion of peatlands.

“There needs to be urgent action to halt the current tremendous rate of destruction of forested peatlands” said Daniel Murdiyarso, the study's lead author, in a statement.

But avoiding conversion of peatlands is easier said than done. Indonesia has ambitious goals for expanding pulp and palm oil production and has already granted extensive concessions on peatlands, which can be highly productive and are generally more readily available than non-peat soils. Buying companies out of existing concessions can be cost-prohibitive: an oil palm plantation can be worth more than $5000 per hectare given current palm oil prices, far in excess of what could be offered under the proposed reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD), a carbon emissions mitigation mechanism which could compensate landowners for conserving forests.

Accordingly, the authors—Murdiyarso, Kristell Hergoualc’h and Louis Verchot—argue that any future REDD deal include a "special focus" on peatlands.

“Unless future global climate policies create significant financial incentives to overcome the economic drivers of deforestation, REDD+ will not be able to compete financially,” said Verchot. Including carbon stored in peatlands in a REDD agreement, would make the carbon conservation initiative more competitive financially with plantations.

"It is now the right time to promote the peatlands sector to be included in the new climate regime," the authors write.

"The REDD+ mechanism offers an opportunity not only to manage peatlands more sustainably, but also to settle a number of agendas related to social and legal issues. It is timely to promote the eligibility of reducing GHGs emissions from peatlands in the new climate regime."

D. Murdiyarso1, K. Hergoualc’h, and L. V. Verchot (2010). Opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in tropical peatlands. PNAS www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0911966107

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Source: Mongabay

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